Thanks for all the great reviews you guys have been sending me. A bit of raunchy banter towards the end, but it is cute all at the same time.
~Mags~
Home, the idea was a new concept to me, something I had never had or even considered the mansion to be for me. When Logan said it I was skeptical for a moment, but something about it sounded right. He had come to find me at my grandfather's. How he managed to track me there is still unknown to me, but he did and he convinced me to come back. Now here I was, walking through the halls that I had run away from twice now; this place that I would now refer to as home.
I stopped suddenly as a strange new smell hit me. I looked at Logan and knew by the look on his face that he smelled it too. We both took off running to the professor's study. The door was open and inside was Storm, Scott, Jean, Dr. Hank and Kurt. Storm rushed over to me, hugging me tightly.
"Oh thank God you're okay. I thought they had gotten you too."
"They? Who are they? And who else do they have?" I asked trying to see past the fear in Storm's eyes to the answers behind them.
"They are the rebel mutants that Eric brought together several years ago." Xavier had come into the room. "They call themselves The Brotherhood and are hiding out in a small town in Maine."
"Maine?" Logan asked. "Maine is just about the least violent state in the Union. Why Maine?"
"Why is not the question at hand."
"The question is how many students did they get away with?" Scott asked, directing the conversation back to the topic at hand.
"Most of our upper level students have been taken. Bobby, Kitty, Peter, Jimmy and Marie are all missing. Warren managed to escape Mystique, but not without injury." Xavier announced. "The rest of our students were kept safe. I should have protected the older ones as well. I never thought-"
"We can't focus on that, Professor," I interjected. "What we need to focus on is getting them back, and quickly. They're still young, damage can be done faster than you think." I turned to the rest of them. "Who are we facing?" Dr. Hank stood up, activating the hologram presentation board. Figures started appearing.
"That we know of? Mystique, Pyro, Juggernaut, Toad and Sabertooth. As well as another mutant that we may have a lot more trouble with. I don't know where he manifested from, but he is known as Dark Beast." The figures disappeared and a darker, almost exact likeness of Dr. Hank appeared.
"How did they get in?" I asked. "And why weren't we called earlier?"
"It only just happened Faelan. It was a surprise attack, in the middle of broad daylight; none of us expected anything." I heard Logan begin to growl.
"I should have been here." I muttered angrily. "This is my fault, I could have helped if I had been here." Storm stepped forward and put her hand on my shoulder.
"The only thing that matters is that you are here now, and now we need to go get our children back." I nodded and we all headed to get ready to go.
I entered my room and went to my closet, pushing open first the outside door, and then an inner hidden one, exposing my new Xmen uniform; one that I had never worn before. I pulled out the black leather uniform, running my hand over detailed stitching that designated it as my own. I pulled it on, zipped up the front and looked at my reflection in the mirror.
The transformation was amazing, so much that I didn't recognize myself. The leather against my arms and torso was skin tight, but oddly movable and light. My particular uniform was one solid piece down my arms and over my hands, ending in what was essentially attached fingerless gloves. The pant legs, instead of being tight like Storm's or Jean's were looser and went over my black riding boots to settle at what I considered just the right length. The accents at the shoulder and neck were colored blue, as well as the outline of the 'X' across my chest. I ran a hand through my short hair and decided it was time.
I met Logan in the hall just outside our rooms. His uniform strangely resembled mine, but with yellow outlines and a more closed in neck line.
"Are you ready?" I nodded and followed him down the hallway to where the team jet was kept. The rest of the team was making preparations for take off. I boarded to see what was needed.
"We are just about ready to go." Storm said, manning one of the pilot's chairs. "Get the rest of the team up and get seated." I ran halfway down the ramp and called the rest of the team up before grabbing the seat behind Storm, Logan next to me looking nervous. I gave him a worried look, but he simply shook his head, closed his eyes and put his head back against the seat as the jet began to take off. I laughed slightly to myself and took his hand in mine reassuringly.
It took only a short while to get to where the radar placed The Brotherhood to be hiding. It was an abandoned plant just outside of Burlington. To anyone who didn't know, it looked like just an empty building, but we knew differently. We landed and Storm pulled up the holographic image of the building.
"We need to get in and to the lower level, that's where the children are being kept. But to get there, we need to get in undetected." She turned and looked hopefully at me. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.
"Jean, please make sure I don't get eaten by some stray cat." Logan looked at my curiously, then suddenly realized what was going on.
"No, absolutely not!" He yelled. "She's the youngest one here, this is her first mission, there's no way we can let her do this."
"Logan it's the only way. And it's not like she's exactly helpless!" Scott responded. "I've seen her in the danger room, I've seen her with other students and faculty. I'm pretty sure she can kick your ass if she wanted to."
"Don't get me started on you, this is about Faelan and there is no way I'm letting her-"
"Logan," I said calmly, placing a hand on his arm. "I know what I'm doing, just please trust me." He couldn't argue with me on a good day and we both knew it, so I turned to Storm who handed me a com-link. "This is going to be huge for what I'm turning into."
"It will shrink with you. That way I can guide you to the control room where you can shut down the cameras and let us in." I nodded, putting it in place in my ear. I then took a deep breath and closed my eyes, screwing up my face out of contempt of what I was about to turn into. I felt myself shrinking, past where I would usually stop, even smaller than a cat. I became a small, brown field mouse. After I had fully changed I heard Storm's voice echoing above me.
"Are you okay, Faelan?"
"You know I hate being in this form, right?" I could hear Logan laughing in the background. "Fuck you, Logan. Now quit it or I will kick your ass later." Logan couldn't help himself, he laughed harder.
"This coming from the smallest mouse I've ever seen. Don't worry, I promise not to step on you." Silently I projected the image of flicking him off into his mind; at that point he tried to control himself but just barely. Storm bent and held out her hand for me to climb in to.
"Go, Faelan. Tell me once you get inside and I'll guide you through." She paused to put me down at the bottom of the ramp. "And be careful."
I scurried off through the fields towards the plant. It took me a little less than five minutes to reach the enclosure.
"Where do I go in?" I asked.
"Go to the North side, there should be a door right around that corner. From there make the first left and the third right." Storm continued to direct me through the plant in that same fashion. Soon I crawled under my last door and found the control room. Two men sat at the computers, watching them intently. I could tell they hadn't seen me as they gave me no heed when I crawled into the room. To them I was probably one of a thousand mice that infested their building. "They aren't mutants Faelan, you should be okay to take them out on your own." At this I smiled.
"In that case, I need to be a little bigger." I felt myself become a bit larger, though not by much - I was now a dark gray rat and was running towards the chairs where the men sat.
"Oh for the love, Faelan! We need to move quickly!"
"If I'm going to be this small, I'm going to take advantage of it. It will only take a moment."
"What's she going to do?" I heard Logan ask in the background.
"She's going to bite the sciatic nerve and render them paralyzed and mute." Storm answered, sounding slightly annoyed but also quite amused.
"You can do that?"
As I listened to them discuss the finer points of my current plan, I crawled up onto the chair of the first security guard and between his body and the back of the chair. I counted up the vertebrae from the bottom, one… two… three… and sank my small teeth into the man's skin. With a slight twitch, he dropped silently against the back of the chair as I dropped onto the floor and repeated the process on the other oblivious guard.
"As easy as taking candy from a baby." I smiled once I had transformed back into my human frame.
"Good, now let us in and tie them up, and do it in that order." I laughed at Storm and turned to the control panel. It was pretty rudimentary and within moments I had disabled the security alarm, shut off outside cameras and unlocked all the doors.
"You're a go. The students are on the third floor at the end of the hallway. I'll meet you outside the control room."
"Thank you, Faelan, we'll see you soon." I turned to the two men still sitting, albeit limply, in chairs.
"My good men, today you find yourself lucky. You have the honor of having me tie you up." I grabbed the role of duct tape that was so conveniently placed on the desk top and worked my magic. I bent them over, taping their hands to the outside of their legs, and their legs to the legs of the chair. The chairs I taped to wide steel pipes on either side of the room. To finish my work, and right before the shock to their systems wore off, I wrapped one long piece of silver tape around their mouths, and another over their eyes.
"Now that's going to hurt when it comes off." I looked up and smiled at the sight of Logan leaning in the doorway.
"That's the point," I smile mischievously and headed past him out the door to join the rest of the team.
"Are you going to tie me up like that later?" He asked, following me down the hallway.
"Only if you're very, very naughty."
"Looks like I have some work to do."
"Ah! Can you two please- just- ugh." Logan laughed at Scott cringed in disgust at our banter.
"Oh, come on, Scotty, stop being a prude," I teased, running my hand across his hips as I passed by. "I can't even see your eye, but I know you would love something like that." Scott grimaced and continued on his way quickly, but he couldn't hide the red blush that was creeping up his neck. Jean caught up with me and whispered in my ear.
"You think you can teach me to do that later?" She had a sly grin on her face that made me laugh.
"I knew you were in to that! And don't worry, I can teach you the best." I saw Logan's eyebrow raise as he heard my comment. I smiled and winked before changing into my wolf form and bounding up the stairs.